Cory Booker deserves praise for heroic fire rescue

John Munson/The Star-LedgerNewark Mayor Cory Booker talks to Coley Whitaker, who escaped the neighboring burning building on his own out the back as Booker helped to rescue a woman from the fire Thursday night.

Mayor Cory Booker rushed into a burning home where he heard a woman crying for help, dashed through the flames to rescue her and then ran outside with the damsel in distress slung over his shoulder as burning chunks of ceiling fell on them.

What will his opponents say now? That the burn on his hand is a fake? That the smoke inhalation was no biggie? That perhaps the whole thing was staged, like Lee Harvey Oswald’s role in the JFK assassination?

Booker is one of the most popular politicians in New Jersey, but he also has inspired a small army of detractors, mostly in Newark, who can’t give him credit for anything — including the drop in crime and corruption, the refurbished parks or the new building cranes working downtown.

This time, they’re stuck. There is simply no way to spin this story as anything less than heroic.
Is the mayor a publicity hound? Without a doubt.

He has been careful to deflect credit to those who helped him, and in a refreshing break with the macho norms of our culture, he admitted he was terrified from start to finish. But yes, he has been tweeting like a bird and talking to the media about every detail.

So if you are looking to find a chink in the mayor’s armor, maybe you can contrast him with a Humphrey Bogart figure who might have slipped home for a quiet whiskey and steak after the rescue, and told the media dogs to stay away. (But wait: Booker doesn’t drink alcohol or eat meat, either.)